Increase In String Breakage Compared To Other Guitars?

Anyone notice any increase in string breakage with their Variax? I've noticed that I break a string within a month of play on my Variax. On my Davison Tune O Matic SG, my strings virtually lasted forever.

I used GHS 11's on the Variax. I recently switched to Ernie Ball Power 11's to see if it'll help.

Do you think the piezos are choking out my strings on the bridge? It seems like a slightly sharp angle where the string bends over the piezos, so it might be cutting it in half over time.

I use Graphtech ghosts with a Floyd Rose on my tranplants and usually have to change strings once every few months, but only due to string wear, not from breaking at the bridge... The graphtechs apparently have some kind of coating on the saddles to reduce string wear...

I don't remember my 300 bridge ever having problems with this though...

I started out in Variax-land with a 300 and now have 2 JTV's, a 59 & a 69S, but I did have some issues with the 300. I always used 0.009's on my strat with occasional breakage towards the end of the strings useful life, but with my 300 set up with 0.009's, I would get only a couple of shows played, and would have a string break -- usually the B string, if I recall right... Don't know if it was saddle related. ANYWAY, I changed to 10's and the problem stopped. I had to get used to the slightly heavier gauge, but now that's all I use. I do hand vibrato and note stretches like everyone does, and (knock wood) haven't popped a string on my 59 or 69S. I don't really use the whammy on my 69S or on my strat, so don't get much breakage related to that. Now using 10's is just out of habit. My strings start going dead on me before I break any, and I change them more for that reason. 11's seem a bit stiff to me, but it's usually the lightest string you can get for acoustics, so my hands take more of a beating when I play my acoustics or my acoustic/electric... My acoustic 12-string really makes my fingers sting if I play it for any length of time....

I started out in Variax-land with a 300 and now have 2 JTV's, a 59 & a 69S, but I did have some issues with the 300. I always used 0.009's on my strat with occasional breakage towards the end of the strings useful life, but with my 300 set up with 0.009's, I would get only a couple of shows played, and would have a string break -- usually the B string, if I recall right... Don't know if it was saddle related. ANYWAY, I changed to 10's and the problem stopped. I had to get used to the slightly heavier gauge, but now that's all I use. I do hand vibrato and note stretches like everyone does, and (knock wood) haven't popped a string on my 59 or 69S. I don't really use the whammy on my 69S or on my strat, so don't get much breakage related to that. Now using 10's is just out of habit. My strings start going dead on me before I break any, and I change them more for that reason. 11's seem a bit stiff to me, but it's usually the lightest string you can get for acoustics, so my hands take more of a beating when I play my acoustics or my acoustic/electric... My acoustic 12-string really makes my fingers sting if I play it for any length of time....

Dave

Thanks Dave. I have a feeling the Variax chokes the strings a slightly more than on other guitars. It might be my piezos being old or something, but it does have a bit of an edge on the saddles and piezo, which is where I think it's choking the strings, so you basically might have a sharp angle that the string bends and sits on, both maybe weakining the string a bit and breaking it more than normal saddles.

I did lower the action a bit because I think the saddles were angled a bit up so that might be doing some choking too, but I don't want it too low or else it'll start buzzing out on the frets.

I have had my 500 for 10 years now, and I experience breakage on my LOWER strings- usually E or A. It's quite annoying, and I have taken to buying individual A strings since they need to be replaced more often.

I think the problem is in the angle of the string coming over the pickup. I have tried sanding down the string guide, but that doesn't seem to work. As it is, I just regularly replace the strings every three months so that I won't be onstage with a broken string. (I play about two hours a week with our church band, so your playing tone should vary.)